To Be EU or Not To Be EU

One needs to commend Britain! The British sure know how to make me more of a bitch. Having actually stockpiled on some much needed rest prior to the ballot closing at 10pm, I turned on the BBC just before 10pm. The sound of Big Ben always makes me rather sentimental even at the best of times. And so when it bonged once more as voting centres closed, I have to admit I did well up a little bit. However, today my tears are really flowing. They say there are five phases to grieving. Denial was fairly brief here. Shock came next. Two others I can’t remember right now and then resignation is the last (I suspect that this 5th stage might be a long time before it arrives).

referendum

I landed in England on a glorious day back in February 1972 for what I thought would be my new country eventually. But I have always been an immigrant– albeit a well-integrated one. Yes, an immigrant. However, after the referendum result, I am even more of an immigrant. For those of you musically-predisposed, pay attention to Sting’s “An Englishman in New York”. The melody alone communicates all one needs to understand about being an immigrant. This is especially true when people suggest to you, as I don’t carry a British passport, to return to “whence you came from”. Sweet. The outcome of this ballot has opened up not a can but a pressure cooker of worms. While I do sympathise with dear David Cameron for essentially being forced to resign after this result, what really needs to be asked is why the bloody hell did he call the referendum in the first place!!

Bitch on another rant

Lately I have been reminded, many times over, and in terms that leave no doubt, that I truly am a bitch. I thank all those who contributed to my bitch status – one aims to delight. Of all the stories that I can recount, there was one rather sweet instance a few days ago of a person’s tirade just how she (yes, it is usually a She) does not appreciate complainers and people who whine. At this point, she then start to grumble and whine. Charming. But before you point the finger at anyone else, just remember that there are more than just one of me out there. As a matter of fact, her winging and whining was so adorable that I ‘d like to take these types of individuals by the hand and direct them into a dark alleyway. As for nincompoop male bloggers out there, you just usually have bad manners. Smart discussion is not helped by those who block out everything they do not want to listen to. That’s where a gardener falls short – he might consider, to his regret, a weed to be undesirable – Stinging Nettles sting – but he usually has more than one way at his disposal to handle them. He could wear gloves, uproot the nettles and use them for a herbal tea OR he can weep and whine all day long about the sores on his arms and legs. So if you need a hanky or something to clean away those tears of contempt, then look no further. You might be able to sever any connection to me, but that does not mean that I will cease to exist, and I will always be ready to engage even with the nincompoops and the most delicate of Denises out there.

Bitch Power

OK People – I’ve just bought myself a big fat muscular bitch of a hammer drill!!! – it’s called the Makita HR2610 SDS+ Rotary Hammer Drill and apparently it’s one of the best ones out there that you can get (if not the best! ;)). “But why?” I hear you ask – and I can already hear the wise cracks and comments “What’s that bitch gonna do with a hammer drill?”, “Oh no, the bitch has got a hammer drill…”, and my personal favourite, “Are you able to lift it?”. Well you new age basta… you are not the only ones that can do construction work you know.DSCN2638

I have a bit of home remodelling to do in the coming weeks and this thing apparently can go through stone walls so its gonna be pretty useful. Apart from having a drill function, it also has a chiselling function so it can essentially be used as a small jack hammer as well – awesome! The one I bought came with the chisel included as well as three identical packs of SDS+ drill bits – strange – why identical?! I guess drill bits on these things wear out quicker than your regular drill when they are going through such hard material all the time. I also got this mega long 14mm drill bit for DSCN2637it separately as I’m gonna need to route some copper piping through some walls. I’ve tried it out a little and I have to say that it does very much live up to expectations for what I’ve used it for so far (putting up pictures on brick walls).

Now I could really get into the macho power tools thing as it’s such a pleasure to use this beast especially when you see it going through previously-impossibly difficult brickwork as if it were the proverbial hot knife through butter. I have just started looking into getting some other power tools now in preparation for my upcoming home renovation challenge and I’m starting to salivate over which jigsaw, table saw and multi-tool would be most useful in getting – now that isn’t as pretty a site as you might think!

Stay tuned for further power tool purchases and renovation challenge updates.

The Irritations of Sleep

I understand the necessity for sleep as well as the science supporting it. Nonetheless, I do not enjoy my daily rest. Let’s just overlook how much time a person might squander at bedtime, though I’m certain that some individuals lose much less time by actually being in repose. My main complaint with dozing off are the dreams as my dreams are almost always un-rememberable (if that was ever a word). Throughout the night, I exist in a different state whilst I am expected to relax and collect myself for another day packed with experiences I ‘d rather avoid. Why can’t a bitch be left alone to be harmonious? When I go to sleep I usually just lay there, reminiscing about the day gone by and about the same stuff I’m gonna do in the coming one. Two mins later and I am out like a light. It’s annoying. Nowadays I have started to speak in my sleep which results in me being awoken by my very own voice – can you believe that! So I am startled on waking up, which means that I almost never remember what I was just dreaming about. It is just so darn irritating! A few years back I purchased a name-brand speech recorder – I have no idea for what reason as I don’t ever use it since if ever I have something to say or share, it will get published – here probably. However, along the same lines, if a device was ever created to record a person’s dreams I would certainly sleep a lot more.

I’ve gone New Age Green!

At long last, my AeroGarden Ultra is in my non green-thumbed hands. Well to be perfectly honest, it arrived a few days ago however I found yourself in New York on a fucking unscheduled work assignment. Of course I did follow it religiously online as it traversed our beloved US, right up to the moment when it reached my doorway. Kudos to AeroGrow for getting it to show up well in time for the holiday season as they had assured me it would. When I finally arrived home I found the box looking a little roughed up and oddly it looked like it had been examined by Homeland Security as there was their now-famous green strip on the box. Not particularly keen on having some suit ruffling through my new kit, but thankfully it was an organised suit as none of the contents appeared to be missing or damaged.

In the box, I found a brochure..

What!? I haven’t even set this one up and they are already trying to sell me another one!

a handbook on how to set up and use, as well as the seed kits that I had to purchase separately…

Stingy fuckers! – they could have thrown these in considering how much this bad boy cost me.

I had gone with the cherry tomato kit and a natural herb kit where you can select which herbs you want included but now I’m having second thoughts and I wish I had skipped the tomatoes for another herb set because everybody has been telling that cultivating tomatoes inside is a bugger to get any type of decent harvest. Oh well you can’t win them all.

The box itself was very well packaged as nothing was damaged even with Homeland Security’s nosiness. The bottom of the device is much nicer and cooler-looking than previous versions of the Aerogardens, other than that, it looks pretty much the same on the face of it, although with the new lighting and other innards, i suspect it works a lot better than its ancestors.

Assembly: Assembly was a breeze, in fact, you probably don’t need the handbook as it all pretty much fits together intuitively.  After I finished assembling the unit and switched it on, the control panel in front pretty much took over and starts telling you what to do. Right, that’s all I need another fucking boss! But at least this one is going to provide some nice treats – fingers crossed.myNewAeroGarden The control panel apparently keeps track of the date and the amount of time since ‘planting’ the seeds. It also keeps track of the nutrients, reminding you when you have to add more. The instructions themselves are displayed on a backlit screen that is very clear irrespective of the ambient lighting conditions and even when the AeroGarden light is on. There are some doozies though, like when it says ‘Germination Mode’, what exactly does that mean and when does it come to an end: after the seeds have sprouted or when they produce their first leaves? They could have been a bit more explicit. It looks like it only has a bearing on the pump activity which apparently will not run as often for the first few weeks as the seeds are taking root.

Opinion: Anyway, overall, when you compare AeroGardens to other types of indoor herb gardens that you can get, I think the ones from AeroGrow are the best and have some terrific design features, however ultimately, the proof will be in the pudding, as they say, or rather in this case the salad when the first herbs rear their lovely heads.